Victoria

A century-old limestone quarry transformed into 55 acres of themed gardens that explode with colour from spring tulips through summer dahlias.

BC's premier natural and human history museum, housing a full woolly mammoth cast and immersive First Nations galleries that reframe the province's deep past.

An 1890 Romanesque Revival mansion built by coal baron Robert Dunsmuir, its 39 rooms filled with period stained glass and carved-oak staircases worth every stair-climbing step.

A floating village of colourful houseboats, fish-and-chip shacks, and curious harbour seals that jostle for scraps right off the dock.

A short scramble up this Garry oak meadow rewards you with a 360-degree panorama over the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains that most tourists never find.

Tucked inside a restored Italianate mansion on Moss Street, it holds Canada's only permanent Shinto shrine and an underrated Emily Carr collection.

Canada's narrowest commercial street — barely a metre wide at its tightest — threading through North America's second-oldest Chinatown past indie boutiques and vintage record shops.

One of the few designated dark-sky parks inside a city boundary, this rocky Uplands shoreline offers surprisingly clear views of the Milky Way on cloudless winter nights.

A beloved Italian institution in the Atrium building serving handmade pasta and slow-braised ragù that has kept a devoted local following for over two decades.

A grain-to-table restaurant on Yates Street where the bread is milled in-house and the seasonal menu pivots entirely around BC farm relationships.

A cavernous riverside brewhouse in a converted 1894 power station where the outdoor deck on the Upper Harbour is Victoria's best spot for a pint at golden hour.

A Pandora Avenue gastropub with 36 taps focused on BC craft beer and a kitchen that turns out serious smash burgers and duck-fat fries until late.

Set inside a heritage warehouse filled with Pacific Northwest art, Swans brews English-style cask ales on-site and pours them in a wood-beamed room that feels genuinely old.

Canada's first in-house brewpub licence, opened in 1984, still pouring estate-crafted ales and lagers steps from the Songhees waterfront with house-cured charcuterie to match.

A subterranean Fort Street club that books touring indie and electronic acts most nights, with a dance floor that gets properly packed after midnight on weekends.

Victoria's long-running jazz institution on View Street, presenting live jazz seven nights a week in a cosy room where the sightlines from every seat are equally good.

A top-floor Douglas Street venue hosting local and touring bands across genres, with a wraparound balcony that doubles as an escape from the main-floor volume.

A compact Yates Street bar known for stiff, well-priced cocktails and a rotating roster of DJs that keeps the room dancing well past 1 a.m.